Tuesday was just another in what is becoming a long line of embarrassing days for the GOP. The US Senate voted to reject the UN treaty that would protect the disabled, world-wide. Evidently the idiots on the far right listened to Rick Santorum, now a columnist for World Nut Daily. The Pink Flamingo feels the only way to get these idiots to approve it would be for one of the Kochs to have a serious disability. The GOP only does what the monied class tells them to do. Evidently, the UN treaty would impact home schoolers.

On the very same day that the far right humiliated itself, once again, Ted Nugent has managed to take things to a new low. He doesn’t think that anyone who receives an entitlement (including Social Security & Medicare) should be allowed to vote!

“…Following President Barack Obama’s re-election last month, Nugent opined that welfare recipients were “gluttonous, soulless pigs who feast on whatever Fedzilla provides.” “And you thought ‘Planet of the Apes’ was a movie,” he wrote. “Too many Americans have become entitlement chumps who have been convinced by Democrats and other liberal scammers that they are entitled to the sweat and hard work of other Americans. Free cellphones aren’t free. Food stamps have become vote-getting extortion vouchers.” In 2009, FactCheck.org debunked the myth that the Obama administration started a program which provides free cell phones to low-income Americans….”

There are some conservatives who say that Nugent was not including either Social Security or Medicare is the drawing that accompanied Nugent’s article.

WTimes

Nugent wrote:

“...The three sacred entitlement cows in the room that no politician wants to poke are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. A blinding statement of the obvious is that we are never going to get our financial house in order until these sacred entitlement cows are not only poked, but slaughtered. Until the slaughter is over, everything else is just taxation window dressing.

In addition to slaughtering the three sacred entitlement cows that consume a vast majority of the federal budget (and I use the term budget generously), let’s truly spread the pain around and raise taxes on everyone, including the nearly 50 percent of Americans who pay zero federal income taxes. Those Americans need to have some skin in the game, too. I recommend at least a 5 percent federal income tax bracket for them. The insane free ride needs to end….”

This is beautiful, and appropriate. Nugent wants the very poorest to pay at least 5 percent in federal income taxes. Well, let’s start with the very rich. There’s a billionaire in Oklahoma who paid about 2% last year. He made about two and a half billion bucks. Yea, let’s start at the top, first. Did you know that the financial sector does not pay any form of sales tax on high speed trading, etc? Why do these people get a break, pay very little in taxes and idiots like Nugent want to stick it to the little people?

Nugent is displaying the same ignorance that Mitt Romney displayed. They think that the poor, who don’t pay income taxes, pay no federal taxes. Well… that’s just plain wrong. Yes, I agree with my Congressman, Steve Pearce, that we need to do something about debt. We need to take care of things, now. And, yes, we need to stick up for the small business owner – who, as Steve recognizes, is the real job creator. The problem is the fact that the cowards of the House can’t do anything because of the organizations that are basically controlled by the Koch Brothers. What is rather fascinating is that John Boehner has purges some of the most conservative panderers from key committees, angering the Club for Growth.

What is fascinating is that, according to PPP, only 23% of the GOP think that members of the House and Senate should bend to Grover Norquist and keep his tax pledge. If this is the case, and only 26% of the GOP supports Bowles/Simpson, then let’s assume that, if the GOP continues on its current projected course, of doing what Paul Ryan wants, and bowing to the Club for Growth and Grover Norquist, that they can’t even pull in the bare minimum of 35% approval for any of the current extreme actions.

“...Norquist repeated a conservative lie that since President Obama has been in office, “We got four bad years of higher taxes” that are stifling the economy, and that “instead of higher taxes, we need economic growth.” For nearly four years, Republicans and their teabagger acolytes have complained they were “taxed enough already” despite the President reduced taxes to their lowest levels in nearly 60 years to jumpstart economic recovery and help struggling families survive the Republican economic devastation still plaguing the nation. Where Norquist seriously lied was his contention that what will save the economy and spur unprecedented growth is returning the nation to Reagan-era taxation levels that would promote growth and pay down the debt racked up over the past four years.

The problem with Norquist’s assertion is that under the Reagan administration, tax rates were higher than under President Obama, and he proposes keeping them lower for 98% of Americans as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations and to continue growing the economy. It is curious that Norquist cites Reagan’s tax policy, because although he initially cut taxes within three months of taking office, within weeks he asked Congress to close loopholes that resulted in the largest tax increase in four decades to cover revenue shortfalls, and over the course of the next eight years, he raised taxes 9 times. The simple truth Norquist, and most Republicans, will never admit is that under President Obama, taxes are substantially lower than under Reagan…”

All of this is terribly important. If things continue on the current course, then the GOP, being pushed off the cliff by the Kochs and company is completely misreading things. For one thing, if the information produced by one of the new studies on high-speed trading is correct, the big money backers of the extreme right – the ones who don’t want to pay taxes, are seriously damaging our economy. According to Eliot Spitzer:

“...a tax on financial transactions. It will give us gobs of revenue. It will fall on a sector that has generated enormous and unwarranted profits for a very few, who at the same time have benefited from huge bailouts and regulatory help and largely escaped any responsibility for their central role in creating the financial cataclysm that we are still struggling with.

Here is the idea: A tax of less than half a percent on every $100 of stock sales or sales of other financial instruments including bonds, derivatives, and options. The tax could raise anywhere from $170 billion to $350 billion per year depending how it was applied. Extend that over 10 years, and we are raising almost what the White House and Republicans agree needs to be raised in order to accomplish the objectives of a grand bargain.

But there is an added benefit here: Trading in the equity and debt markets has gone wild over the past few years. High-speed trading and speculation have overtaken the economically legitimate reasons for our desire to have highly liquid markets: the capacity to raise capital and then allocate it efficiently among sectors and companies. The trading that has emerged over the past few years is not serving that purpose—it is a casino enterprise driven by hidden pools and computer algorithms that do not seek to hold capital for longer than an instant.

To the extent that a financial-transfer tax drove some of those trading practices out of the marketplace, that would be another good outcome….”

Where do we go from here? Does the GOP become even more indebted to the ultra wealthy, twisting themselves like a pretzel to agree with Rush, FOX, Beck, Medved, Hannity, O’Reilly, and the usual conservative brainwashing, lying scum or do Republicans realize they’ve allowed themselves to be turned into abject fools?

Do Republicans even bother thinking on their own? If they don’t smarten up and start using their heads, the GOP is DOA.

Funny the article brought up home schoolers in Utah: one of the problems countering Warren Jeffs and the FLDS is due to the state of Utah claiming that it cannot infringe upon home schoolers — thus there’s nothing that can be done about what the FLDS kids are taught…such as God led the Apollo astronauts away from the Moon (hence moon landing a hoax) and that Warren Jeffs was (or is) president of the U.S. (and that it’s ok for him and 15 old geezers to be fathering all the babies and having sex with the little girls).

I don’t have a problem with home schooling, even thought of it myself after one particularly frustrating bout with the school district…but there is home schooling and then there is home schooling, and from what I’ve seen a lot of the home schoolers are WWJD whackjobs who want to “protect” their tots from “evil, outside influence”…which means Suzy and Tommy will be taught that science is “da debil!” and all manner of really bad interpretations of the Bible (or Koran, or Torah) which essentially says it’s ok to treat anybody who doesn’t believe the same as you worse than an animal (and animals are to be treated like inanimate objects, because they are lesser creations). I’ve seen kids that were home schooled that at age 7 still didn’t know their alphabet, still couldn’t even come close to reading…and who thought themselves geniuses because their mommies and daddies (who were teaching them ) told them so!
Like I said: there’s home schooling and then there’s home schooling.

Sharon

Think it is time to start calling the GOP the “Ayn Rand” Party because it is unlike any Republican Party I have ever known. Cannot believe the number of Republicans who basically worship Ayn Rand and her philosophy basically glassing over the fact she was an athiest. That doesn’t seem to play into their narrative so they ignore.

Find the GOP today an embarrassment to my intelligence with some of their speeches like Rubio the earth is now less than 10,000 years old to a week later the world is 4.5 billion years ago. Then you have Paul Ryan touting the GOP is for everyone when it is his budget that wants to cut the social services net while preserving tax cuts for the rich. Fewer and fewer GOP are buying into their rhetoric as witnessed by the fact the MSNBC is now beating Fox News in key time slots along with Rove and Dick Morris being banned from Fox unless management approves.

Maybe there is hope in the world that someone with brains, honesty, and ambition will reach out to thos of us who disenfranchised by the GOP as being too liberal even though we have been conservative for years and start a new center right Party. Basicially giving up on the GOP as he treks to the hard right but uses rhetoric to convince people they don’t have a war on the middle class. Note to Rubio/Ryan — it is not working!

The Pink Flamingo Recommends

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”--Sinclair Lewis

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SJ Reidhead (aka The Pink Flamingo) is a writer based in New Mexico. The author of two published novels, both westerns: Dust Devil and The Second Mrs. Earp and two published works of non-fictions: TRAVESTY: Frank Waters Earp Agenda Exposed and A Church for Helldorado, Endicott Peabody's 1882 Tombstone Diary. One of the leading authorities on the life of Wyatt Earp and Tombstone during the Earp years, she is currently writing a series of murder mysteries set in modern day Tombstone. The author is also working on a book about fashion in the Wild West. When complete, there will be over 2100 unpublished antique photographs dating from 1855-1910.

The author's work has appeared in Wild West, True West, Blogcritics, and The Tombstone Times. Recently the author has had to deal with a father in Stage 4 Alzheimer's Disease. This is leading to a book dealing with the frustrations of dealing with the frustrations of the disease, finance, legal, health-care, and things no one bothers telling families about it.

SJ Reidhead has been involved in Republican politics since she was 'a little kid'. During the Reagan years she was a lobbyist working with various non-profit organizations who were attempting to salvage NASA and the American space program after the disastrous Carter years. Unfortunately, because of the libertarian take-over of the GOP, and the rise of the Tea Parties, as the Republican Party becomes more and more extreme and marginalized, it is impossible to remain loyal to the GOP. The Pink Flamingoremains GOP in order to try to bring the party back to what it once was. I fear it is an impossible task.

The Pink Flamingo went on line on October 4, 2005, after the author realized "normal" Republicans were being marginalized as the extreme far right attempts to become the new normal. In November, 2012, The Pink Flamingo, for the first time ever, voted for a Democrat, Barack Obama. Normal will never again apply to the GOP.

THE PINK FLAMINGO STORY

It started out as a joke. During the seven years I worked with the girls of my parish, leading a youth group, one of the things that I stressed were manners. Part of having manners, the way I see it, is to know how to set a proper table, host a party, cater it, and clean up afterward. I was fortunate enough to have a group of very talented girls in my youth group. They learned how to plan for, and execute large church functions, very properly. During one such function I noticed there were several incredibly tacky pink flamingos sitting on the table. Knowing the girls were up to something, I said nothing. A few months later they did the same thing at a function I was hosting at my home. I said nothing. They had a birthday party for me. More pink flamingos appeared - and a joke was born.

Thanks to the girls, all of whom are now grown, I have a collection of pink flamingos. It has become an ongoing joke. When I began working on my political blog, I realized the only possibly title was The Pink Flamingo!